An ‘aggressive’ Fadnavis emerging as New Delhi’s ‘point man’ in Mumbai

Mumbai: With the fastchanging political scenario in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai, over the last couple of months, a fresh lease of life was given to “silent performer” and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who, for the first two years since the fall of his government, maintained an extremely low profile despite being the leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly.

According to sources, amid the ongoing BJPShiv Sena-NCP political war, Fadnavis has suddenly emerged as New Delhi’s “point man” in Mumbai to take on the saffron party’s political opponents, “by hook or by crook”, and was recently advised by the party high command to “perform or perish”. With the growing number of CBI, ED and Income-Tax cases against leaders of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, it is believed in relevant circles that there is a “hidden and discreet” role played by Fadnavis as “principal informer” also working as a “friend, philosopher and guide” to central intelligence agencies.

Fadnavis, as Maharashtra CM for five years, is reportedly in possession of highly sensitive documents and tapes which can put quite a few senior Sena, NCP and Congress leaders in a tight spot. There is a general feeling in the opposition that Fadnavis is working as the “coordinator” for central revenue intelligence agencies having thoroughly done his “homework”, in addition to having generated his own “data bank” to nail political opponents.

This was in fact one of the aspects on which he was grudged by his party high command: for not exploiting the sharp intelligence gleaned from the home department which was under his charge to neutralize political opponents in Maharashtra. Fadnavis chose to maintain good political equations and a steady boat instead of going after his political rivals outside the BJP.

In one particular case, when Fadnavis was asked by the media how he was in possession of a “secret tape” related to phone tapping, he “innocently” replied that the concerned video, and audiotapes were received by him on his mobile through Whatsapp, while some were sent to him by post. All these “developments” have virtually forced the Mumbai business and corporate world to accord an equivalent status, importance and recognition to Fadnavis on par with CM Uddhav Thackeray.

The reasons are very clear: Most business bigwigs are suitably “concerned” about the operations of the ED, I-T department and CBI and, at this stage, believe that any “communication gap” with the former BJP Chief Minister can prove fatal to their business interests. All said and done, despite clarifications and contradictions made by Fadnavis, almost everyone in India’s financial capital now believes that there is close coordination and understanding between the central agencies and the BJP in Maharashtra, which is closely monitored and supervised by the powerful and strong ‘Number Two’ in the national capital.

According to political observers, by now Union Home Minister and master strategist Amit Shah has assumed complete command and control of all “developments” in Maharashtra and it is likely that he may spring a major political surprise in the coming months to virtually compel CM Uddhav Thackeray to enter into a “power-sharing compromise” with the BJP once again, with Fadnavis back at the helm as Chief Minister of Maharashtra.